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Tag Archives: Eddie Izzard

It all started, as it often does, with a tweet. I wish I could give credit where credit is due, but I honestly can’t remember who first tweeted that #OccupyDC had attempted to occupy the abandoned Franklin School at 13th & K NW. The link has since been updated, but at the time, there was a standoff between police and Occupiers. I grabbed my video camera, tweeted the following:

Heading down to 13th & K to check out #OccupyDC taking over vacant school building. See you there.

jumped in my car and headed downtown. And never made it. On the way there I managed to have a fender bender, which I promptly tweeted about as soon as I got home (don’t worry, everyone was alright):

Never made it to 13th & K to see #OccupyDC vacant school action. Had a (minor) car accident on the way there. Trying to decide who to blame.

What would you like to see Occupy Wall Street accomplish? Tweet your ideas! #ows

Oh dear Lord, this was just what I needed to take my mind off what had just happened. As I have mentioned before, I don’t write (or tweet) for anyone but myself, so I just started listing everything I thought of, whether it was an indictment of #OWS, something that made me laugh, or something that I actually wanted accomplished. And now, for the first time ever, with explanatory links and/or clarifying remarks where necessary, is the comprehensive list of my crazy night with Michael Moore:

This makes me laugh for several reasons. First, like they could ever get organized enough to invent a time machine. Second, Bill & Ted was about time travel, so there’s that self-licking ice cream cone again. Finally, I can absolutely imagine them accidentally inventing something useful and then using it for such an idiotic purpose. Oh how I crack myself up.

Of everything else I tweeted, this is the one thing I actually want. Seriously. I’ll pay $100 for a solid mashup of the two linked videos. I need to think through what the criteria for claiming the prize are…stay tuned.

I may or may not just want to see Scott Bakula topless. The world will never know.

So that was it. I think I ended on a high note, despite there being a lot of duds. The interesting thing was that I gained a few more followers than suggestions I sent to Michael Moore, and considering that I only started with around 770 (Math Geeks of the World, Unite!), that was nearly a 10% increase in just a few hours. If only Twitter were the stock market. I have yet to hear back from him regarding any of these suggestions, but, as we say in the Navy, I’m on hot standby.

So I had been curious for quite some time about the meaning of Adam Baldwin’s (@adamsbaldwin) #PolymorphousPerversity hash tags, and I tweeted a cry for help. I was not expecting the response I got (from Mr. Baldwin himself), which included links to The History of Political Correctness, The Origins of Political Correctness and Repressive Tolerance. These were helpful because they explained what Mr. Baldwin means not only when he uses #PolymorphousPerversity but also #RepressiveTolerance. I think that I, like many, had been misinterpreting Mr. Baldwin’s tweets as intolerance of the left when what he is really asking for is (if I am understanding correctly) simply reciprocal tolerance.

Upon reflection, I realized that I have been dealing with Repressive Tolerance all my life. One of my most vivid memories is from high school. I was called a racist because I filled out a form and listed my race as “other, European American”. I must admit that I wasn’t taking a stand, I wasn’t fighting back at political correctness, I was just being a smartass. In retrospect, however, I now see what everyone was so upset about. They thought I was taking a stand.

More recently, I was smacked in the face with Repressive Tolerance when I had the opportunity to meet my favorite comedian, Eddie Izzard (@eddieizzard). I happened to be on the west coast for one night only and he happened to be doing a one night only fundraiser in West Hollywood that same night. It seemed like fate. Through more twists and turns of fate I ended up not only meeting Mr. Izzard but going out to dinner with about a dozen people (including him) after the show. Now please don’t get me wrong, I will be forever grateful to Mr. Izzard for his openness about being a straight (executive) transvestite. To a certain extent, I credit my son’s ability to come out (at the age of 14) to that openness (something along the lines of “if mom thinks Eddie’s OK then I guess she’ll be OK with me”). On the other hand, although everyone else there seemed open to my mostly right-leaning viewpoints, Mr. Izzard only seemed to want to talk to people who agreed with him. It was disappointing to say the least.

So we’ve done early 90’s and 2010; now for one in the middle that tells a different (and better) story. In 1999 I was living in Charleston, SC and working at Nuclear Power School. I had an opportunity to work as an extra on a movie that Martin Sheen was in and, hey, free money, right? I thought I’d be one of thousands but when I showed up there were only a dozen or so extras and we ended up eating dinner with the actors. Mr. Sheen was very interested in my job with the Navy. I was surprised given what I had read about him in the media. He was completely open to learning about the history and safety of nuclear power in the Navy and participated openly in a two-way dialog. This idea that everyone is entitled to their own viewpoint (which Mr. Sheen seemed to embrace, despite his own very strong views) is what Mr. Baldwin is advocating.

As a wise woman once said, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”